Sabotage -Is a deliberate action aimed at weakening ……through subversion, obstruction, disruption, destruction, or underhand tactics. One who engages in sabotage is a saboteur. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions.

The above definition sure is a dead ringer for our two main enemies! The flesh/poser and the thief or father of lies.
The Lord gave me the below writing- God’s Plan For You and Me on July 11, 2011.

Someone in my mens group brought up 1 Peter 5:10 yesterday which reminded me of this writing. So as I awoke in the middle of the night as I am prone to do, I was led to read it again. While reading I was reminded that my trials and testings are from my great and loving father and are all filtered through his loving hands. Note: our broken state, due to sin in the world, is not from him but is filtered through his love and power. He promises to use it for good in our lives. Satan wants to use it for evil to poison our hearts and minds toward the father – to confuse our hearts. Causing us to distrust his intentions- his love and greatness.
Oh that we will submit to his perfect love and promises in all things. Whether we are broken and suffering or someone we love is undergoing suffering. Trusting and entrusting all to him, Submitting to his love and power toward those who are his. Believing that he will utilize whatever comes our way for our highest good and his glory.
Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Keeping in mind that He will do more with your trials and suffering than you can ask or imagine.

Ephesians 3:20-21
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Still Trusting and obeying, Jonathan

God’s Plan for You and Me

After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
— 1 Peter 5:10

You have seen the arch of heaven as it spans the plain: glorious are its colours, and rare its hues. It is beautiful, but, alas, it passes away, and lo, it is not. The fair colours give way to the fleecy clouds, and the sky is no longer brilliant with the tints of heaven. It is not established. How can it be? A glorious show made up of transitory sun-beams and passing rain-drops, how can it abide? The graces of the Christian character must not resemble the rainbow in its transitory beauty, but, on the contrary, must be stablished, settled, abiding. Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no “baseless fabric of a vision,” but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you. But notice how this blessing of being “stablished in the faith” is gained. The apostle’s words point us to suffering as the means employed—“After that ye have suffered awhile.” It is of no use to hope that we shall be well rooted if no rough winds pass over us. Those old gnarlings on the root of the oak tree, and those strange twistings of the branches, all tell of the many storms that have swept over it, and they are also indicators of the depth into which the roots have forced their way. So the Christian is made strong, and firmly rooted by all the trials and storms of life. Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but take comfort, believing that by their rough discipline God is fulfilling this benediction to you. – Taken from Morning and Evening Devotional

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future

We would rather think about this promise and not 1 Peter 5:10! How can we reconcile the two? Hmmm. Plans to prosper us vs. “suffering awhile”. Of course human nature will choose the path of prosperity every time! Hey God, can you super size my order of prosperity and give me a raincheck on the “suffering awhile”? And if we are real honest… we hope that the “suffering awhile” raincheck will expire and we will live in prosperity forever. Why is it that we equate blessings and prosperity only with health, wealth and good times? When, in REALITY, the real and lasting/Eternal blessings come through the storms of life. Look! Our biggest and best blessing came through incredible pain and suffering-

Isaiah 53
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

The truth is, the only way Christ’s nature will be rooted and established in us is through trials. Gold is not made pure but through fire and diamonds are not formed but through time and pressure. How much more the child of God is made perfect through suffering!

Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Grace and Peace, Jonathan

 

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